Smoking behaviour, former quit attempts and intention to quit in urban adolescents and young adults: A five-year longitudinal study

Objectives: To examine smoking behaviour, former quit attempts and intention to quit among Swiss adolescents and young adults over five year's time. Study design: five-year longitudinal study (2003, 2005 and 2008) based on a random urban community sample (N = 1345 complete cases). Methods: Data were collected by computer-assisted telephone interviews with adolescents (16-17) and young adults (18-24). Main outcome measures included self-reported smoking behaviour, former quit attempts, smoking cessation methods and current intentions to quit smoking. Results: Adolescents were more often non-smokers and less often daily smokers when compared to young adults at baseline (chi(2)(4) = 28.68, P < .001). Their smoking behaviour increased significantly from baseline to follow-up (T = 1445.50, r = .20, P < .001) in contrast to the stable smoking behaviour in young adults (chi(2)(2) = .12, n.s.). In longitudinal analyses young adults were also more stable in their smoking status at the later measurement points. In comparison adolescents changed their smoking status more often being nonsmokers at baseline and smokers later on. Independently of the age group, the majority of smokers already had previously attempted to quit (65%) or intended to give up smoking at some point (72%). However only 17% were motivated to make the quit attempt within the next 6 months. Self-quitting was the preferred method, and 25% of the self-quitters had been successful. Conclusion: This study illustrates that different developments in smoking behaviour exist in adolescents and young adults. Our study reveals that a majority of smokers are willing to quit but often fail. Furthermore, the data indicates that for adolescents the focus should lie on primary prevention. (C) 2012 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.